The Tanakh Podcast

Once again, David has a chance to assassinate Shaul, but he refrains from taking the king's life. But Chapter 26 seems almost a repeat of Chapter 24! What is the need to relate both of these stories?

While an outlaw, David and his men have been patrolling the Southern Border and ensuring the safety of local farms and polulations. When one of the local farmers - a rich sheep farmer called Naval - insults David and his men, refusing to share the bounty of the farm at the sheep-shearing, David decides to attack. It is the quick action of Naval's wife, Avigail, that saves David from performing a massacre. But this story reminds us of the violence that David can wield, and of the restraint that he has employed towards Shaul. 

In this chapter, David gets close enough to Saul that he can cut off the corner of his coat. Why doesn't David murder Saul? What moral principles guide David?

From Ke'ila to the wilderness of Zif, David pursues the Philistines ; Saul Pursues David. David defends the country even while on the run; Saul is consumed by his fear and loathing of David.  David has an Efod. He consults with God; another contrast to Saul. After the massacre at Nov, Ke'ila and Zif are afraid for their fate, and inform against David.

A paranoid Shaul accuses his servants of conspiring against him. Doeg the Edomite informs Saul that the High Priest had given David food, a weapon, and even consulted God on his behalf. Though the priests profess their innocence, Saul has the entire priestly town massacred, "men and women, children and nursing infants, oxen and donkeys and sheep, by the sword."  

David is on the run. He turns to the High Priest and has to lie in order to obtain some food supplies and a weapon.  He tries to defect to the Phillistines, but soon realizes that he won't be safe there either.

David and Jonathan make one final attempt to see if Saul is determined to execute David. It all centers around a Rosh Chodesh feast and a secret message by means of Jonathan doing some (arrow) shooting practice. In this podcast we discuss 1. The centrality of Rosh Chodesh in ancient Israel 2. The love of David and Jonathan 3. Archery as a Benjaminite expertise.

In our chapter, Shaul informs his inner circle that he intends to have David killed. he chapter contains three attempts on David's life. He escapes two by his own means, and the third by divine means. Music. "Run!" OneRepublic

David is a national hero. Shaul conscripts him to his army. But with every success, Shaul's jealousy and suspicion intensify. David is beloved. By Shaul initially; then by Yonatan, by the nation, by Michal. But Shaul spirals downwards as suspicion becomes hostility, and then enmity. Shaul begins to plot David's murder.

David fights Goliath. The unarmed shepherd against the giant armour-clad warrior. Indeed this has become a cultural metaphor. But what sort of David do we meet in this chpater? We shall see an ambitious, confident young man, brimming with religious faith, quite the opposite of Shaul.